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Chaos Theory Z is a Dragon Ball Z Self-Insert Fic by Mr. Chaos.

Inexplicably placed into the life of Avo Kayos, a documentarian currently working for Bulma Briefs, a cunning writer from the real world is thrust into the world of the Z Fighters, beginning at the time of Raditz's arrival on Earth. The wisest thing may be to step back and let events unfold. But even when Death Is Cheap, stepping back and doing nothing isn't his style. Things soon spiral into a whirlwind of changes, good and bad, and Kayos sets off down a path of learning magic to hold his own along the Z Fighters.

It can be read on FanFiction.net.


Chaos Theory Z provides examples of:

  • Actually Pretty Funny: However bitterly, Turles does smile when he demands descriptions of Daiz's opponents in Chapter 29 after hearing that one of them looks like him, and Daiz describes that one as...looking like him.
  • Adaptational Badass: Abundant, thanks to Kayos’s intervention.
    • Yamcha is the one who dies to Raditz when he comes to Earth. Hence, he’s the one who trains under King Kai and learns the Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb techniques.
    • A couple of gentle nudges to Chichi cause her to decide to go with Goku and Gohan for their search for the Dragon Balls. This starts a progressive building of her confidence that leads to her joining the Z Fighters and getting back into fighting shape. And that’s before they learn that her mother was a Saiyan.
    • Krillin, following advice from the Scroll of Knowledge, finds a reclusive gentleman who teaches him how to stretch out his usage of ki and make the most of every particle. This conservative technique puts his energy on par with Goku.
    • Master Roshi helps the others train, breaking bad habits that Goku and the others had fallen into and getting back into proper shape himself. Then he dies to Nappa and is invited to train under King Kai.
    • Tien and Chiaotzu, also following advice from Kayos’s scroll, learn how to fight in tandem, passing energy between each other and even duplicating each other’s techniques.
    • Bulma uses her mechanical know-how to support the others, and that’s still her preferred role. But after talking with Kayos, she decides to take active measures by building power armor with electrical weaponry.
    • Driven to desperate measures against Vegeta and Nappa, Kayos summons Shenron and wishes for everyone in Goku’s family with Saiyan blood to be able to regrow their tails at will and have perfect control over their Oozaru forms.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Minor case with Goku in that he never learned the Kaio-Ken or Spirit Bomb techniques, of which the former became obsolete when he became a Super Saiyan, and the latter has been unnecessary thus far wherever it was needed in the original material.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: In Chapter 13, Gohan asks Piccolo why he would want to rule the earth. When Piccolo realizes he’s not asking from a “why would you want to do bad things?” perspective, he pauses to listen. Gohan outlines The Perils of Being the Best and The Chains of Commanding, unable to understand why anyone would ever want to rule the world. Piccolo hadn’t considered those points before, and soon after decides he cares more about being free.
  • Avenging the Villain: Vegeta shows awareness of this trope as early as Chapter 2: with Cooler and King Cold out there, he knows that he can't be reckless in his plan to kill and usurp Frieza.
  • Beam-O-War: The final clash between Turles and the sons of Bardock. And like with Cell in canon, the Earthling Saiyans only win because Chichi distracts Turles with another ki blast at a crucial moment.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Discussed when Kayos reveals to the Z Fighters that he knows about the Dragon Balls, but makes it clear that he has no interest in a wish because he knows how badly they can backfire if not properly made. To prove his point, he then deconstructs the standard wish by DBZ villains for immortality by pointing out all the various loopholes that mean that an immortal could still be defeated.
  • Brain Bleach: Kayos gets even with Yamcha and Krillin at one point by having King Kai transmit pictures of himself on a beach vacation (implied to be of him wearing very unflattering swimwear) into their heads, leaving them twitching in disgust.
  • British Stuffiness: Deadpan Snarker Isco speaks with a mildly British accent.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When the rematch begins, Raditz doesn’t realize Yamcha came Back from the Dead until he says as much because he’s killed too many people to bother keeping track of faces.
  • Came Back Strong: As in canon, when a Saiyan recovers from a Near-Death Experience, their power increases exponentially.
    • After Chichi is nearly killed by Lord Slug, their power increases to be a match for Goku.
    • After Vegeta recovers from his clash with the Z Fighters, he experiences this for the first time in his life since nobody had ever pushed him to the brink of death before.
  • Catch and Return: Kayos’s White Flag technique operates on these lines; he can’t generate his own Ki energy, but he can catch any Ki used against him and rechannel it.
  • Cliffhanger:
    • Chapter 11 ends with the Z Fighters learning that someone other than them has gathered the Dragon Balls and used the wish to unearth Dr. Wheelo and his laboratory.
    • Chapter 16 ends with the Z Fighters, barely off their clash with Raditz, engaging Vegeta and Nappa as they arrive on Earth.
    • Chapter 17 ends with Vegeta and Nappa flying off when they sense Gohan's power level back at the research station.
    • Chapter 18 ends with Chichi growing a Saiyan tail.
    • Chapter 20 ends with the Z Fighters learning that someone other than them has gathered the Dragon Balls (again), followed by a cut to Lord Slug receiving his wish for eternal youth.
    • Chapter 21 ends with Lord Slug suddenly appearing somewhere else far from the battlefield where the Z Fighters have just decimated his army. Where? Why, on the lookout, right behind Kami, of course.
    • Chapter 24 ends with Senza finding out about Gohan's newly adopted pet dragon, Icarus.
    • Chapter 28 ends with the reveal that the source of the distress call the Z Fighters answered is The Tree of Might.
    • Chapter 29 ends with Kayos getting a proper spike in his evil magic for the first time when he devours the only fruit from the Tree of Might.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The different colors of magic, as told by Baba:
    • Scarlet: Studying to cultivate magic in others.
    • Orange: Breaking limits.
    • Gold: Rituals to cultivate magic in others.
    • Emerald: Growing their magic like a garden.
    • Sapphire: Control and domination.
    • Violet: Pruning their magic like a tree, sometimes to self-destruction.
    • Pink: Copycats of other colors.
    • Brown: Thieves who steal magic from others.
    • Ebony: Using otherwise unusable magic; Evil-adjacent.
    • Ivory: Purist rule-followers; Good-adjacent.
    • Silver: Mythical, good and evil magic seamlessly combined. The color of Chaos.
  • Consummate Liar: While he’s mostly honest to the good guys, Kayos is very good at and very used to stretching the truth, unbeknownst to most of those who trust him.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Isco, of all characters, turns out to have a legitimate reason to hate humanity, stemming from whomever he had associated with before Kayos. Perhaps his talks about the inevitable robot uprising shouldn't be taken so lightly after all...
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Invoked on Raditz, who submits to Goku after the Z Fighters beat him, with all of them affirming that they’ll help him fight Frieza.
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap: A millennial event called the Dragon Moon, which lasts about half a year, causes the Earth Dragon Balls to recharge in only a single day. But once the Dragon Moon ends, they’ll need as many years to recharge as the number of wishes made. The Dragon Moon concludes around the same time as the Saiyan Saga, and over that time, they were used four times (twice by the good guys, twice by villains). This coupled with the fact that Kami and Piccolo fused together several years early means that the Earth’s Dragon Balls will be unusable for the foreseeable future.
  • The Dreaded: King Cold has ordered Frieza to never challenge two specific beings: Beerus, God of Destruction, and Majin Buu. Though Cooler is skeptical that Buu actually exists.
  • Egopolis: Inverted with Planet Vegeta — the planet isn't named after the royal family, they're named after the planet, as King Cold couldn't be bothered to remember individual names of his Puppet Kings, and so ordered that from then on after conquering them, every Saiyan ruler would be named "Vegeta".
  • Exact Words: Even fully cognizant of the fact that Shenron isn’t a Jackass Genie, Genre Savvy Kayos takes care to word his wishes as carefully as possible. One noteworthy instance is that when he wishes for the Scroll of Knowledge, his wording is that it can provide “the answer to all questions I ask of it!” Which is to say, the Scroll will work for Kayos and only Kayos.
  • Family of Choice: Goku shrugs off Raditz's revelation that the two of them are brothers by stating that the friends he's fought alongside are more like family to him than someone he just met.
  • Foreshadowing: In Chapter 2, Vegeta and Nappa mention unconfirmed rumors of another surviving Saiyan, and the two of them think nothing of it. Raditz, meanwhile, is certain that he's out there. His name? Turles.
  • Genre Savvy: In Chapter 11, Kayos realizes that plot contrivance is in effect when Chichi expresses a desire to call her father while they’re on the mainland, saying that the island doesn’t have good reception, which doesn’t make sense for Bulma’s family.
  • Gorgeous Garment Generation: As in canon, Piccolo has this ability. Kayos later figures out how to do it as well, and even manages to weaponize it.
  • Guile Hero: Kayos starts off as a normal human, and even after he starts bulking up and learning magic under Fortuneteller Baba, he uses his powers in matters of subterfuge and deception rather than straightforward assault. He puts it best in Chapter 3 when talking about how he would defeat someone who was immortal:
    Krillin: …who thinks like that?
    Kayos: (coldly) Someone who can’t benchpress this house. That’s the problem with you guys… you are very strong and powerful but you forget what it’s like to be completely desperate. Because desperation forces you to get VERY creative.
  • Hidden Depths: Raditz turns out to have some deep-seated anger about how self-destructive his people's Proud Warrior Race Guy mentality is. He's also a competent electrician, as he had to find some way to kill time while traveling between planets.
  • Hyper-Awareness: As in canon, Piccolo is very observant and has very good ears. He may not know Kayos’s origins, but he picks up on all the hints he drops, like him not only knowing about the Dragon Balls, but also knowing Shenron’s name. He learns the full story much later, after re-fusing with Kami.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: During the Training Montage chapters, Kayos alludes to going to the bathroom late one night and finding a naked Goku in the hallway eating ham, and the Saiyan’s reaction is to ask Kayos if he wants any. It seems the Z Fighters in general don’t think much of nudity, and that incident with Goku made Kayos get over his own modesty.
  • Irrational Hatred: Or at least mistrust, from Krillin towards Kayos, from the moment they first meet and Kayos mentions how he’d use poison to take down Goku if he had to. It’s not to the extent that Krillin won’t fight alongside him or listen to him when he has good ideas, but he still has some mistrust for Kayos’s underhanded tactics. Soon enough, the rest of the Z Fighters agree that he’s being unreasonable with the grudge, and he finally lets it go after Kayos intercepts Vegeta’s Galick Gun for them, almost dying in the process.
  • It Only Works Once: The only proviso that comes with Shenron is that he can never grant exactly the same wish twice. This undermines the whole Death Is Cheap shtick that the series is known for, as it would require another set of Dragon Balls to revive someone a second time.
  • Literal Split Personality:
    • As in canon, Kami and Piccolo are two halves of the Nameless Namek, who shed his evil traits to become Guardian of Earth. But in this story, it comes to light that what the Nameless Namek cast aside that became Piccolo were only the traits he perceived as detrimental to his goal…including the desire to become Guardian of Earth in the first place, which manifested in King Piccolo’s desire to rule the world. Lord Slug even reveals that they weren’t properly separated; if they were, their lives wouldn’t be tied to each other. With all of these revelations, Kami and Piccolo have a proper heart-to-heart to make peace with each other, ending with Kami fusing them back together.
      • It also comes to light that in canon, even when Piccolo and Kami recombined, it didn't recreate their original self. Since Piccolo had already combined with Nail on Namek, the two were no longer equal halves, and Piccolo's personality was by far the dominant one after the re-fusion.
    • Lord Slug performed the Separation Ritual as well, incarnating his compassion, empathy, honor, and doubt into a separate form and then leaving it at the mercy of a group of vile raiders.
  • Living Lie Detector: It’s mentioned offhand in Chapter 7 that Isco can tell if Kayos is lying.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Taken from an OC…well, “villain” is generous, in Chapter 3, the Shield of Countless Defense is an apparently indestructible shield that will reflect any attack back onto the attacker. Said “villain” painted a crude dragon on it and rechristened it the Dragon Shield, and Goku gives it to Gohan after they win.
  • Magic 8-Ball: The Scroll of Knowledge is this. When the Z Fighters first summon Shenron to revive Yamcha, and Kami tells them to wait a year so he can train with King Kai, Kayos takes the opportunity to wish for an indestructible magic scroll that will answer any question he asks of it, which he uses as a significant aid for the group’s training.
  • Manipulative Bastard: King Cold in this story seems to be overall more mature and pragmatic than Frieza on the surface. But this seems to be his reason for living: Frieza silently remarks that everything he does is to watch the result of a clash between two different parties.
  • Mathematician's Answer: From Chapter 1:
    Isco: Should I be annoyed that you didn’t suggest using me? It would be rather easy for me to eliminate the pain receptacles.
    Kayos: Are you calling them pain receptacles or suggesting that’s what you’d remove from them?
    Isco: Yes.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • When Kayos talks to Chichi, she’s livid that Goku was deceiving her about what they were planning to do. The anger evaporates when she hears that they learned where Goku came from.
    • The solemnity of Kayos’s conversation with Kami breaks when Kami asks if other Saiyans ever came to Earth. Which is to say, Nappa and Vegeta are en route and will be touching down in a few minutes.
  • Named by the Adaptation: In the original series, after Piccolo fused with Kami, he just kept going by Piccolo, having long forgotten his real name. Here, at Isco's suggestion, he takes the name Senzanote  as a placeholder until (or unless) he decides on a new name.
  • Point of Divergence: Abundant.
    • Kayos intervenes in the fight between Raditz, Goku, and Piccolo; when Raditz wins, Kayos smooth talks the Saiyan into giving Goku a year to train before returning for a rematch. Raditz agrees, so he and Goku both survive. However, he sends a lethal ki blast towards Krillin before he goes, and Yamcha dies pushing him out of the way. All of this leads to Yamcha training with King Kai in Goku’s place while the rest of the Z Fighters convene and start a year of straight training to prepare for Raditz’s return.
    • The rematch with Raditz ends with a strong, if not overwhelming, victory on the part of the Z Fighters, and Raditz is persuaded into joining their ranks. However, Vegeta and Nappa arrive at the battlefield almost immediately after.
    • As they’re fighting a losing battle against Vegeta and Nappa, with Master Roshi already dead, Kayos summons Shenron and makes a wish to empower the Saiyans in Goku’s family with perfect control over their tails and Oozaru forms. This buys them the time that they need to destroy Vegeta’s artificial moon, and Vegeta still retreats after killing Nappa himself.
    • Due to Lord Slug’s information, Kami learns that he and Piccolo were never properly separated, and he accepts that Piccolo was never his evil self; merely what an imperfect Namek saw as an impediment to him becoming Guardian of Earth. This leads to Kami recombining with Piccolo several years early.
  • Poke the Poodle: Master Shen swore vengeance on Tien and Chiaotzu for betraying him. His revenge is apparently setting up a website filled with lies about them. Annoying and embarrassing lies, but nothing life-ending…
  • Power at a Price: Unique to this fic, the Dragon Moon is a millennial event lasting about six months, which causes the Dragon Balls to recharge after only one day. But once the Dragon Moon ends, the recharge time in years is equal to the number of wishes made during that time.
  • Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Properly Paranoid: Turles lives in a constant state of fear. Fear that Frieza will find him. Fear that his subordinates will betray and overthrow him. And fear that he'll be unable to grow enough fruit from the Tree of Might fast enough to fend off both of those problems.
  • Put on a Bus: At the end of Chapter 30, the interdimensional being Entropy beckons Kayos to participate in the first round of the Chaos Wars, and Kayos inadvertently selects Goku as his companion. The author's notes confirm that they will be out of the story (and in another) for eight chapters, this being in the middle of the Z Fighters' journey to Namek.
  • Related in the Adaptation: In this story, Turles, the main antagonist of The Tree of Might, is Goku and Raditz's uncle, being the brother of their mother Gine. Raditz reflects in Chapter 2 what he heard about the man from his father Bardock, none of which was good. The feeling is mutual, with Turles having only scorn for the rest of his race, and none more than Bardock; hearing that Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta doesn't affect him in the slightest.
  • The Reveal: Averted, albeit temporarily, in Chapter 30. When Kayos blurts out that he knows everything will be OK with the Tree of Might because that's how it happened in the movie, just as it seems like he's going to have to come clean about everything, he's beckoned to the Chaos Wars, only sharing that he's from another Earth before entering a portal to another dimension for eight chapters. Of course, this might just mean that Senza, the only one who knew his secret, will have to tell the story instead.
  • Robot Buddy: Isco, Kayos’s Snarky Non-Human Sidekick camera droid. He makes no secret of the fact that he looks down on almost all humans and wants to build a robot apocalypse, but he’s mostly loyal to Kayos and, later, gains a secondary body to fight alongside the others.
  • Secret-Keeper: Kami is the first to learn Kayos’s true name and origins, and he confides in Mr. Popo. Piccolo also learns it from Kami after they re-fuse.
  • Secret Test of Character: The Repentant Miser only teaches his “Selfless Style” of Ki manipulation to people who are seeking it for selfless reasons; he reveals himself to Krillin and agrees to teach him after Krillin affirms that he’s doing everything he’s doing because he wants to protect his family. And that is definitely the main reason; he definitely doesn’t let people run through the big tourist trap that is his namesake temple and lose lots of money in the process purely for kicks.
  • Shapeshifting: Taking inspiration from Oolong, Kayos asks the Scroll for direction in how to disguise himself as others. He exploits this against the Saiyans, posing as Nappa to trick Raditz and later posing as Vegeta to trick Nappa.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sneeze Cut: In Chapter 9, Roshi almost blasts Gohan with Ki after Baba, elsewhere on the island, accuses her brother of “always thinking with that shriveled-up worm of his!”
  • Spared by the Adaptation: This particular person surviving doesn't make a massive impact in and of itself, but the circumstances that lead to it will: Miguel, Hercule's wife and Videl's mother, whom Kayos provides a cure for in the form of a Senzu Bean and a pill specifically made to deal with her fatal heart condition. And all of this purely as a show of good faith for Hercule to step into his role as the Z Fighters' PR representative far ahead of time.
  • Split-Personality Merge: At some point offscreen, Tien passed along some info from the Scroll of Knowledge to Launch, enabling her to merge her two halves into one being, who has Evil Launch's fighting skills but Good Launch's morals. This is reflected by her hair now being both colors at once.
  • Summon to Hand: One of the traits of the Scroll of Knowledge is that Kayos can call it to his hand just by willing it.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Averted twice in Chapter 30: while Daiz and Turles are monologuing, the Pleists ambush and kill the former, and Goku and Raditz tag-team the latter.
  • Theme Naming: As is typical for Dragon Ball.
    • We have an instance in Chapter 3 with the Dragon Lord, an original antagonist—no, that’s too generous, an original wannabe villain (even that’s too generous) has a bunch of very stupid people under his command, all of whom are named after tools. He’s not much smarter himself.
    • The Pleists are a race of Beast Men from Chapters 28–30 who take the form of different kinds of dogs. Naturally, they're also named after dog breeds.
  • These Hands Have Killed: Bulma briefly goes into shock in Chapter 30 after killing Rasin, and is still clearly out of it afterwards.
  • This Cannot Be!: Fortuneteller Baba’s reaction to Kayos talking about becoming the Silver Sorcerer. A balance of Good and Evil magic is one thing, but Silver, a perfect blend of the two, is a myth as far as she’s concerned.
  • Time Skip: A few of these spaced throughout the training arc:
    • Three weeks after Chapter 6.
    • One month after Chapter 8.
    • Three and a half months after Chapter 9.
    • Several months after Chapter 13.
    • The remainder of the training time after Chapter 14.
  • Time to Unlock More True Potential: Invoked by Kayos after Raditz defeats Goku and Piccolo, as he manages to persuade Raditz to return in thirteen months for a rematch against Goku at full power. Of course, all of the Z Fighters get in on it, with this trope in effect from Chapter 6 to Chapter 14.
  • Training from Hell: While the Z Fighters train themselves in their own ways, Raditz chooses to spend the year before their rematch on Venus, dealing with its deadly atmosphere and subterranean spider snakes.
  • Understatement: Bulma, several times, as she outlines the “deficiencies” of the research facility the group arrives at in Chapter 6:
    • “Now I’ll admit it isn’t much…not a grand resort or anything…” Translation: A three-story mansion.
    • “The kitchen is lacking in a few things…” Translation: A kitchen straight out of a five-star professional restaurant.
    • “I wish we had been able to get the pool retiled.” Translation: Olympic-size pool with several hot tubs, ice baths, and a wave pool.
    • “Sorry about the small size.” Translation: A bedroom bigger than Goku and Chichi’s entire house.
    • “This is the main reason I chose this place. But trust me, it will be worth it.” Translation: A basement laboratory the size of a football field with several robotic aides.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Played with regarding the Pleists: they're not particularly trusting of the Z Fighters even after they respond to their distress call with the Tree of Might, but that's easily explained by the fact that the leader of their enemies is Turles, who looks almost exactly like Goku. And after the fact, while they accept Bulma's capsules with gratitude, they're eager to have the Z Fighters leave the planet and never come back, which is also understandable considering Kayos at the fruit of the Tree of Might instead of finding a way to return the energy to the planet.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The Super Namekian Lord Slug is incredibly powerful, able to easily keep pace with Goku and Piccolo. But with his heightened Namekian senses, whistling causes him excruciating pain. That much is canon, and is how he lost in the original movie. Here, though, Kayos brings him into a circle of all the Z Fighters sans Piccolo, and with all of them whistling, he’s left in too much pain to move, let alone resist, as Goku kills him.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Invoked by Kayos in Chapter 29, the first half of The Tree of Might, as he's still oversaturated with good magic from saving Earth from Dr. Wheelo and Lord Slug. So in order to properly supply his evil magic, he sneaks over to the Tree of Might while Turles is distracted, steals its only fruit, and rather than finding a way to return the power to the planet it had drained, he eats it himself. This does indeed give him a massive surge of evil magic, and does get everyone chewing him out after the fighting is over in the following chapter. Of course, the fact that he flees the battlefield and lets the other Z Fighters take down Turles and company—even if they win with relative ease—doesn't help.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb: According to the Scroll of Knowledge at the end of Chapter 6, Kayos has the potential to become the Silver Sorcerer. At first, it seems like this just means he can wield Good and Evil magic in perfect balance. But when Baba brings up different colors of magic-users and Kayos asks about Silver, Baba says that the color is a myth, and only elaborates when Kayos told her what the Scroll said:
    Baba: Silver…which doesn’t exist and you must have read the Scroll of Knowledge wrong…are able to merge Good and Evil magic together. With all the others they focus on one type of magic…But Silver…Silver is able to take their Good and Evil magic and blend them together, make them work as one… and thus reach levels no other magic user has ever reached.
  • You Killed My Father: Canon materials imply that Raditz had a strained relationship with the rest of his family, due to him being far more arrogant and bloodthirsty. Here, though, he’s adamant about bringing down Frieza himself since Bardock was on the front lines of the Saiyans who resisted the tyrant.

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